Every
year, March 8 sees a flurry of activity around issues related
to gender equality and women's rights. Thinkers and social
activists meet to discuss persistent inequalities in women's
access to resources such as education and health, and their
unequal representation in the public sphere, in government
and positions of power. Amidst a general consensus that recent
decades have seen some improvements, there is agreement that
much work remains to be done. And yet, this burst of activity
is usually followed by a gradual levelling off - until International
Women's Day comes around again! It is hard to understand why.
After all, the problems related to gender inequality -- greater
poverty of female headed households, limited access of girls
and women to basic resources and the unequal treatment of
women within the household and society, to name but a few,
remain omnipresent for the rest of the year.

Inequality
between the sexes is most clearly reflected in the widespread
global prevalence of violence against women (VAW), carried
out by individuals, communities, and even the state. Most
people feel genuine revulsion towards the manifestations of
VAW, which range from physical violence (beatings, dowry demands,
domestic violence, murder etc), to sexual violence (rape,
harassment, molestation, abduction etc) to the less visible
but equally damaging phenomenon of emotional violence (threats,
humiliation, cruelty etc). And yet, despite what we are taught
is normal behaviour, (i.e. the absence of such violence),
perhaps the most shocking thing is how very common such violence
is. A simple statistic which illustrates this is the World
Health Organisation 2002 report on violence, which estimates
that around 70 per cent of female murder victims are killed
by their male partners.

Amnesty
International recently launched a major campaign on violence
against women, finally granting this terrible human rights
abuse the attention that it deserves, and terming it "the
greatest human rights scandal of our time". That such
a campaign is being initiated, on a long-term basis, by an
organisation like Amnesty is a sign that VAW is finally being
recognised as a mainstream problem rather than an isolated
occurrence. Equally importantly, it is being recognised as
a common problem that we all have a responsibility to address,
rather than being seen as a "women's issue", as
it has often been considered in the past. Violence Against
Women is a social problem, and as such, must be addressed
by society as a whole, individually and collectively.

The aim
of the campaign is not to "blame" men as perpetrators,
but to condemn the act of violence, and this is important
to bear in mind. In any case, it is not the perpetrators alone
who are responsible for such violence, but also the silent
majority of us who choose to remain disengaged from the situation.
It is this apparent indifference that allows a climate of
impunity to flourish. We need to remember that the victims
of violence are our mothers, sisters, daughters and friends,
whether we ourselves are men or women. And similarly, that
the perpetrators of violence are often people that we know,
whether or not we are aware of what they are doing. Sometimes,
sadly enough, the reason that we don't know is because we
don't want to know. As the title of the Amnesty report clearly
states, we have to stop violence against women, because it's
in OUR hands.

Violence
against women destroys lives. Not only the lives of those
who are victims, but also of those who commit the violence
(who may themselves be damaged from such experiences). Not
only the lives of those who experience it directly, but also
of those who are forced to see it happen without being able
or willing to intervene. Not only the lives of the protagonists,
but also of their children, and perhaps even their children's
children. One British violence survivor described how her
husband walked into a family gathering and slapped her repeatedly,
for no apparent reason. Their two-year-old son, sitting on
her lap, burst into tears saying "Sorry, sorry, sorry".
As she said, "I think that sums up the impact on children,
they take it all on board. Even at two years old he was thinking
it was something to do with him."

At the
launch event for the Amnesty Stop VAW campaign, a number of
people spoke passionately and movingly about the phenomenon
of violence against women, about the wide-ranging forms it
takes, and above all, about the incredibly high price that
individuals and society pay for such violence. One such speaker
was China Keitetsi, who was kidnapped at the age of eight
and made a child soldier in the Ugandan rebel army in the
1980s.

Despite
the fact that she had no doubt told her story many times,
she was unable to control her tears as she described yet again,
how at the age of 15, she had lost count of the number of
men who had imposed themselves on her body. The army demanded
that the girls fight as soldiers, but they also had to make
themselves available to any soldier who wanted to sleep with
them. And yet, when the girls got sick or became pregnant,
they were told that they were shameful, and that they should
hide themselves. In order to survive the horror of that experience,
China explained how she had been forced to see her body as
something separate from herself -- to distance herself from
what was being done to her body. Against her will, she became
a mother at the age of 14, and again when she was 18. Her
son was fathered by her commanding officer, and her daughter
by whom, she had no idea -- "It could be any man",
she said.

Perhaps
most heartrendingly of all, she spoke of how the UN subsequently
brought her to Denmark, as a refugee, telling her that she
would have her childhood back again. She was glad to see how
happy and protected the little girls in Denmark were, in stark
contrast to her own lost childhood and the brutal reality
of war. "Sometimes I feel as if I am 6 years old, and
sometimes as though I am 100 years old because of all that
I have seen", China said sadly. But once in Denmark,
she also found it very hard to be around Danish children,
because she wanted to BE like them, to understand what it
was like to have a family, to be happy, to live without blood
on your hands. And because she could not have that, because
it was too late for her, she now feels that what would make
her truly happy would be to know that no little girl will
ever have to go through what she and her comrades have suffered.

Yet looking
around the world today, it seems that China's dream is further
away from reality than ever. Not only with regard to the issue
of the ever-growing numbers of child soldiers, refugees and
victims of conflict, but also in the apparent epidemic of
physical, mental and sexual violence against children. There
is enough evidence of this in Bangladesh with the recent spate
of shocking cases of rape, abduction and abuse of children.

A more
familiar story, but an equally powerful one, came from the
testimony of Patrick Stewart, the actor (perhaps best known
for his roles as Captain Picard in "Star Trek: The Next
Generation" and Professor Xavier in "The X-Men").
Stewart spoke of how his father, a decorated war hero, took
out his frustrations on his long-suffering wife, while his
children watched on helplessly. Although decades have passed
since these events took place, Stewart's pain was obvious
as he described how he had seen the blows, heard the screams,
and helped to clean up the blood after each of these scenes.
His frustration was evident, as he spoke of how society chose
to blame his mother, who was in no way responsible, for the
violence that was visited upon her. Although his father had
never physically hit him or his siblings, they all felt that
they had been profoundly emotionally damaged from these experiences.
Once again, he emphasised that preventing such violence is
a responsibility that must be borne by all of society.

Listening
to these stories, I couldn't help thinking about the words
of Pastor Martin Niemoeller (a victim of the Nazis), who said,
"First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out
-- because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out -- because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak
out -- because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came
for me -- and there was no one left to speak out for me."
If we do not act now to raise awareness about violence against
women, and take measures to prevent it, nothing will ever
change. And for those who are not directly suffering as a
result of such violence that is still no reason not to act,
because our silence effectively ensures our complicity. No
decent man or woman can afford such inaction, because the
price of silence is too high. And it is a price that is paid
for in blood and tears. It is worth remembering that, next
time, it could be someone that you or I know and love-- our
friend or relative -- who pays that price. Is that a risk
we can afford to take?